My weekly Get Your Stuff Together Sunday email series gives you one actionable focus for the week that will make your life a little easier.

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You know that “ugh…I don’t wanna” feeling? Me too. I’m very familiar with it. You might say you’re being lazy. Maybe you think of yourself as a procrastinator. Maybe both? This week, we’re talking about avoiding laziness and procrastination and how the two are different. You can get rid of both, if you know what you’re looking for.

Laziness vs. procrastination

Before we can get to the “how” of overcoming laziness and procrastination, we need to first define each one, as they’re a little different from each other.

Laziness is a state of mind where you just don’t care. Yeah, there are things that you could do that need getting done, but you lack the focus and desire to accomplish these things. Laziness doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s something we all feel from time to time, and it’s usually because you don’t care enough about the task to do it.

Procrastination, on the other hand, is being reluctant to do something. It differs from laziness in that it isn’t that you don’t care, it’s that something is mentally holding you back from doing it. When we procrastinate, we end up feeling guilty about not doing whatever it is that we are avoiding doing. This is different from laziness because laziness does not come with the guilt - because you just don’t care!

Now that we know the difference between laziness and procrastination, let’s look at a process to eliminate them. They’re inherently different, but this same 4-step process can be used to handle both of them.

Step 1 – Identify the reason why you don’t want to do something

Are you avoiding doing the task? If so, why are you avoiding doing it? With laziness, you could be bored and choose to spend your time doing something else. You could be avoiding doing something just because you don’t see the value of accomplishing that task.

With procrastination, you are most likely avoiding the task, but it’s still on your list because you think it’s valuable to do. You might be afraid of failure or the problem seems to big to handle. If that’s the case, break it down into smaller and more manageable chunks so you can see some success. Remember the old adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”

Whatever it is that is preventing you from accomplishing that task now needs to be identified before it can be overcome. If it’s not something you think is valuable to do, scratch it off your list and stop worrying about it!

Step 2 – Identify the long-term consequences

In this step, take a look at what will happen if the task being delayed doesn’t get done. Does something else you want in life depend on getting this thing handled?

Step 3 – Set realistic and achievable goals

If you’re procrastinating, it might be because your goal is too lofty or because of the fear of failing. So, you might decide to avoid doing the task to put off potential failure. In this case, break the goal down into milestones or smaller goals, and when one is achieved, use that momentum to continue with the next one eventually accomplishing that big, fat goal in the process.

If you find laziness taking over frequently, it could be because you don’t feel challenged enough to want to do a task, so you just don’t do it. Setting a goal worth achieving – something that challenges your skills and talents - can be the catalyst to get you moving and working toward the goal. In other words, you aren’t lazy; you’re just not setting goals you’re interested in!

Step 4 – Take immediate action

Once the (right) goal is set, you need to start immediately, even if it’s just a small, itty-bitty step forward. With either laziness or procrastination, doing something immediately is better than doing nothing.

Next Sunday, we’ll discuss why you should have a garden as well as tips for how even an apartment dweller can grow some fresh food right from home.

My weekly GYSTS email give you one actionable thing to do for the week that will make you life a little easier. As "they" say, "Fail to plan; plan to fail." Get these emails (and more!) delivered right to your inbox by clicking HERE.

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